Turkmenistan Silences a Last Voice of Opposition;
Rights group protests arrest of opposition figure

Human Rights Watch, 7 January 2000

(New York, January 7, 2000)--Human Rights Watch today condemned the
arrest of Turkmen dissident Nurberdi Nurmamedov. Nurmamedov, 57, is
one of the only remaining Turkmen opposition figures not in jail or
exile. The arrest follows his public criticism of the recent decision
to extend indefinitely Turkmen President Saparmurad Niazov's term in
office.

"Turkmenistan has once again proven that it is one of the world's
most repressive states," said Holly Cartner, Executive Director of
Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division. "The price
for speaking out there is jail, exile, or worse."

On January 5 at approximately 4:00 pm, district police came to
Nurmamedov's home in northern Ashgabad, the capital, and took him into
custody, according to the Moscow-based Information Center for Human
Rights in Central Asia, which obtained the information from
Nurmamedov's family. Police reportedly told family members that they
were looking for "possible stores of weapons and narcotics."
Family inquiries to the Ministry of Internal Affairs yielded no
information on Nurmamedov's whereabouts; he is presumed to be in the
custody of the State Security Service (KNB, formerly the KGB). No
formal charges against Nurmamedov have yet been announced.

Last month, Nurmamedov gave at least three interviews to Radio
Liberty's Turkmen Service, the only source of non-governmental
information for most Turkmen citizens. He criticized the December 12
parliamentary elections, in which the government allowed no
independent or opposition candidates to participate, and called the
decision of the parliament to effectively make President Niazov
president-for-life both anti-democratic and unconstitutional.
Nurmamedov also had contacts with foreign diplomats, meeting with a
visiting U.S. Congressional delegation and attending the
U.S. Ambassador's Christmas party in late December. Nurmamedov helped
to found the never-registered Turkmen opposition party Agzybirlik
(Unity) in 1989, and had been repeatedly detained and fined in the
past for his political activity.

"When I met Nurmamedov last year in Ashgabad, he was
extraordinarily courageous despite the constant surveillance which
kept him a virtual prisoner in his own home," said Cartner.
"His arrest shows that President Niazov has no intention of
lessening the brutal repression, which only intensified in 1999."

On September 9 of that year, political prisoner Khoshali Garaev, aged
37, died under extremely suspicious circumstances. In August,
Turkmenistan imprisoned two figures critical of the government who had
indicated interest in participating in the upcoming parliamentary
elections. One received a five-year sentence but was amnestied; the
other, Dr. Pirikuli Tangrykuliev is serving his eight-year sentence.
Also in August Baptist pastor Shagildy Atakov was sentenced to four
years in prison for his religious activity. Turkmenistan, which has
effectively outlawed all religious groups organized by those other
than Russian Orthodox Christians or Sunni Muslims, continues to wage
war on unregistered religious congregations. In August, Turkmen
security forces bulldozed a privately-built Hare Krishna temple and
deported the group's leaders in August. In November, they demolished
a Seventh-Day Adventist temple; the next month they forcibly deported
four leading Baptists. International organizations dismissed
parliamentary elections on December 12 as an empty exercise. Niazov
himself told the parliament in late December that he will allow no
alternatives to his ruling party for at least a decade.

"The recent declaration of Niazov as president for life, his
wiping out of any and all potential opponents, the total repression of
religious freedom--all of this should make Turkmenistan a pariah
state," said Ms. Cartner. She called on the government of
Turkmenistan to immediately and unconditionally release Nurmamedov,
and on international financial institutions, including the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the U.S. Export-Import
Bank, to immediately halt all lending to the government of
Turkmenistan.